Why? Because you can save 10% on almost everything.

Discover Card recently rolled out support for Apple Pay, Apple’s new secure payment method. To promote it, they’re offering an additional 10% cashback on all store purchases (excluding gift cards (maybe?)) for up to $10,000 in purchases in 2015.

Shifting your habits

$10,000 seems like a lot of money to spend, especially in just over three months. But you know what? So is the $1,100 you’ll get back if you do things right. You may not spend all $10,000, but it’s probably easy to get close.*

• For example, I preordered an iPhone 6S before finding out about the deal. So I went to the Apple Store once I received it, returned it, and bought it back using Apple Pay in the store. That’s $80 cashback right off the bat.**
• I use T-Mobile for my cell phone service, and they accept Apple Pay (at some stores), so I can pay my bills for the next three months.
• All of the grocery stores we frequent accept Apple Pay – Jewel, Whole Foods, Trader Joes – and we spend about $500/mo on groceries, and a few hundred on booze at said grocery stores. (The booze usually ends up being cheaper at grocery stores anyway.)
• Ventra, the payment processor for CTA (public transit here in Chicago) fares, accepts Apple Pay at train stations. Good bye, automatic deduction; hello monthly stops at the nearest station to load up my card!
• We don’t go to Starbucks often, but I’ll be sure to load up our account before the year is up. It’ll last us a year, feel like free coffee, and it’ll give us a good 10% off everything.
• A whole bunch of other merchants accept Apple Pay, and therefore accept Discover+Apple Pay. Like Coca-Cola vending machines or Nike.
• (Some somewhat fishy people on the interwebs have suggested going to Walgreens and buying gift cards, which apparently works but isn’t supposed to.)

Don’t have a Discover Card?

Then you should!

• There’s no annual fee, so it doesn’t hurt.
• They give you your credit score for free.
• They give you 1% cashback on all purchases (which isn’t special nowadays), and 5% cashback on bonus categories. So even if you only use it for bonus categories, it’s worth it.
• Right now the bonus category is Amazon, for example. Amazon! Why not save 5% on all Amazon purchases?
• Their customer service is excellent. They have a two-ring policy! And they follow it! I love these guys.

Sign up using this referral code and get $50 cashback bonus right away***:

http://bit.ly/1MSwzdU

If you get a new card, you could even get 22% cashback, because of a Discover promo to get double cashback through the end of the year!

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* Discover already gives 1% cashback on all non-bonus categories. The bonus categories through December are Amazon (not in-store), and department stores. Which means for department stores, you’re getting 15% cashback. Crazy!

** I pay cash for my iPhones to avoid ridiculously priced service plans. And Cook County has ridiculously high sales taxes and TIFs.

*** So will I!